dropps spin cycle

Josh Dorfman goes crazy for Dropps in his new book, "The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget"

Terra Wellington mentions Dropps in her new book, "The Mom's Guide to Growing Your Family Green"

2008 National Park(ing) Day

Today is National Park(ing) Day in Philadelphia and across the rest of the country. It is a day where you can create your very own park or "green" space. The spaces are open to artists, businesses and non-profits to demonstrate ways to reduce pollution created by automobiles. We found out about Nation Park(ing) Day way too late and are sorry weren't able to participate. Next year we will be out in full green force to demonstrate how the smaller size and lighter weight of the dropps pac and the stand-up pouch reduces the amount of pollution emitted from trucks transporting the detergent all over the country compared to the big jug brands. Park away!

Calculate your own carbon footprint

There is a lot of talk about carbon footprints. Your personal carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from your daily routine. Emissions may come from driving your car, flying on an airplane, electric appliances in your home, leaving the lights on and the list continues. We found this nifty and easy to use tool to help you calculate your personal carbon footprint. You may need to get a hold of your last energy bill to accurately assess how much carbon dioxide your are emitting from your electricity use at home.

http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/index.php

Happy calculating! A cool way to track your emissions is to do an initial calculation and write it down. Then figure out ways to reduce emissions in your daily routine. One or two months later, use this tool again and see if your work has paid off. We hope it does!!!

Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy

World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5th, was started by the United Nations to stimulate worldwide awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and action.

Check out the World Environment Day Alphabet - 80 Ways to Celebrate and this Treehugger interview with Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the United Nation's Environmental Program (UNEP).

June '08 Eco Festivals Across the Nation

Nice weather brings the outdoor festival season into full swing (what could be better?!) and from the look of things you could keep mighty busy from all of the activity. We picked a handful of eco-related festivals taking place throughout the country during the month of June. This is just a smattering of what's going on. All of them look pretty fun and some rather quarky. Drop us a line if we missed any great eco events taking place in your area.

• May 31-June 01 - Union Street Eco-Urban Festival in San Francisco, CA www.unionstreetfesival.com
• June 01 - Seed Source 1.0 in San Francisco, CA www.seedsource.org
• June 01-05 - WINDPOWER 2008 Conference & Exhibition in Houston, TX www.windpowerexpo.org
• June 01-05 - Clean Technology 2008 in Boston, MA www.zerofootprint.net
• June 04-05 - Earth Now Expo 2008 in Las Vegas, NV www.earthnowexpo.com
• June 06-08 - Harmony Festival 2008 in Santa Rosa, CA www.harmonyfestival.com
• June 05 - World Environment Day www.unep.org
• June 07 - 2008 Sonnenschein Festival in Hohenwald, TN www.sonnenschein-tenn.org
• June 07-08 - Green Pasadena in Pasadena, CA www.green-technology.org
• June 08 - Green Roots Festival / Bikes Not Bombs Bike-a-thon in Jamaica Plain, MA www.bikesnotbombs.org
• June 12-13 - Greener by Design in Alexandria, VA www.greenerbydesign08.com
• June 13 - The 8th Annual Ann Arbor Green Fair in Ann Arbor, MI www.a2gov.org
• June 10-20 - LOHAS Conference 2008 in Boulder, CA www.lohas.com
• June 17-20 - 2008 BIO International Convention in San Diego, CA www.bio2008.org
• June 20 - Bronx Green Roof Tour in Bronx, NY www.greenhomenyc.org
• June 20-22 - The Energy Fair in Custer, WI www.the-mrea.org
• June 21-22 - Earth Works Expo in Denver, CO www.earthworks2008.com
• June 22 - Green the Heartland in St. Louis, MO www.zerofootprint.net
• June 22-25 - Sustainability 2008 in National Harbor, MD www.wef.org
• June 28 - Venice Eco-Fest 2008 in Venice, CA www.earthdayla.org

If you go to any of these festivals let us know what you thought about them!

How Green Is Your Laundry?

The Sierra Club posted a fun little quiz called, "How Green Is My Laundry?" We took the quiz here and some of us scored much better than others. Well, there's always room for improvement! We did feel they could have included a question or two about laundry detergent. It is an important factor in the greening of your laundry. Take the quiz and see how you pile up:

http://www.sierraclub.org/howgreen/laundry/

One of our favorites - Project Laundry List

Project Laundry List is one of our favorites and for good reason. It is a non-profit organization whose goal is to demonstrate through art, education and advocacy how personal choices can make a difference on the environment and on its people. Their main tool - clothes lines. Hanging out clothes on a drying rack or clothes line is one easy way to reduce energy consumption at home. It cuts down on energy use and saves money. What better combo? The average household will save $100 per year by hanging clothes out to dry. Plus, hanging out your clothes leaves them feeling soft and smelling fresh. 

Think about the energy and financial savings if you hung your clothes out to dry and washed your clothes in cold water. Cold water washings use 75% less energy than hot water washings and save the average household $65 in energy bills. Now, all these savings are starting to stack up! The weather is nice everywhere at this time of year, so give it a shot.

Here are two places that offer a wide variety of drying racks and clothes lines for any household type:

www.gaiam.com or www.ikea.com

To learn more about Project Laundry List, visit www.laundrylist.org

Unscrew America

Unscrew America ranks up their with gcycle.org as a totally quarky, but totally helpful site. It is all about getting America to change its light bulbs to CFLs. It offers tips on which light bulbs to buy, what you save when you make the switch and other fabulous random facts. Check it out at www.unscrewamerica.org. Here is a glimpse:

Happy Earth Day! And the Winners Are...

Happy Earth Day everyone! We are excited to announce our three Earth Day Resolution winners. Overall the posts were incredibly thoughtful and doable. It really shows how little changes in our daily lives can add up to make a big impact. To us, everyday is Earth Day. It's all about smart and easy low impact choices.

Congratulations to the winners! Here are their posts:

Winner #1

I am going to get cloth napkins to reduce my paper towel usage, and actually remember to bring my reusable grocery bags to the store!

Posted by: Della

Winner #2

Already using reusable grocery bags, washing laundry with cold water, using less light and changed all our light bulbs, and some other things. I resolve to use less plastic (water bottles especially) and grow more of my own food.

Posted by: jen g.

Winner #3

I'm going to try to compost more of my household waste, and buy a clothesline for drying clothes, since there is no such thing as an Energy Star rated clothes dryer. I'm also going to make more beverages at home (iced tea, Crystal lite, etc) instead of buying pre-made drinks which use more plastic in order to reduce my waste.

Most clothes dryers use about the same amount of energy as each other, and they're one of the most energy consuming appliances in one's house, after the furnace and water heater.

Posted by: Tracey

Whether you were a winner or not, stick with your Earth Day Resolutions. We look forward to starting and sticking with our own!